


how's a guy like me supposed to compete?

by eggplantavenger



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, This Fic Has Everything, annabeth getting a second (age appropriate) himbo simping for her, connabeth nation rise up, jealous!Percy, the implication that silena will give clarisse a buzz cut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26842996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggplantavenger/pseuds/eggplantavenger
Summary: It's the summer of Percy's 16th birthday and him and Annabeth are on the outs. Things are complicated and Percy is gone a lot. But Connor is there to distract Annabeth from the impending doom and heartbreak.Aka Connor and Annabeth are being hellions and Percy's definitely not jealous--why would you say that?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Connor Stoll, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 22
Kudos: 123





	how's a guy like me supposed to compete?

**Author's Note:**

> Not me rocking up to the PJO renaissance fifteen minutes late with fresh new fic like it's 2009 and Tik Tok is just a Ke$ha song.
> 
> Anyway, um, sometimes you fall back into your middle school hyperfixation to cope with a pandemic and the fall of the republic. I'm not surprised it happened, I just didn't expect to return with fic for a crack ship. I had to resist the urge to make this A/N in the style of A/Ns in the aughts, what with the overuse of emoticons, lol xd so random humor, and conversations between the author and characters.
> 
> Anyway, it's good to be back PJO fandom. It's been a while, so hopefully this is decent.
> 
> Also, this takes place during the summer of TLO.
> 
> Also also, I blame tumblr user @connabeth.

“I’m gonna kill them,” Clarisse says. “I will mount their heads on the wall of Cabin Five.”

“That seems excessive,” Beckendorf says before hammering a horseshoe onto Porkpie.

Percy’s got his hands threaded in Porkpie’s mane. It’s the first day of July, which means he has to help Beckendorf reshoe the pegasi. It’s an all-day event, Percy had been up since before dawn, which was annoying, but Silena had brought by lunch for them so they could just keep going, which was nice.

She’d stayed to hang out with them, which Percy also didn’t mind. Silena and Beckendorf were cool and they never made him feel like an awkward third wheel. Or maybe he didn’t feel like a third wheel because he could talk to the pegasi.

Either way.

The afternoon was perfectly pleasant until Clarisse had stormed in, wearing her helmet, and raging.

“No such thing as overkill, Beckendorf,” Clarisse says. “All’s fair in love and war.”

“Okay,” Silena says. She’s standing on a bale of hay and braiding Guido’s mane. “And who are we killing this week?”

“Connor and Annabeth—the fucking gremlins.”

Percy brushes off the weird clench of his heart. Connor and Annabeth had always been close, but they seemed inseparable these days. Or maybe it just seemed like that to Percy. He hadn’t been at camp every day this summer, so he could be wrong, technically. 

But it did seem like everyone was using the phrase, “Connor and Annabeth” with more often than they said, “Percy and Annabeth.”

Whatever. 

“Percy!” 

Percy snaps his head up to look at Clarisse. “What?”

“You’re not even paying attention!” Clarisse says, throwing her arms up. “Useless! I asked if you knew about this.”

Clarisse points at the helmet.

“What about it?”

“I can’t take it off.”

“That seems like an improvement.”

“I’m gonna kill you after I kill Connor and Annabeth.”

There. She said it again.

“How do you know it was them?” Percy asks, moving to give Beckendorf room at the other hoof.

“They pulled the same trick on Luke once,” Silena says. Everyone pretends to not notice how her voice trips over Luke’s name. “I don’t know how they got the helmet to stick, but Luke had to shave his hair, ‘cuz it ripped out some patches.”

“How long did it take to get the helmet off?” Percy asks.

“Few hours,” Silena shrugs. “But I think they took mercy on him and helped him.”

Beckendorf grunts. “After the way Red Team trounced Blue Team last week in capture the flag, I don’t think they’ll feel merciful.”

“Fix this.” Clarisse demands, glaring at Percy.

“Why?” he says. “I think it’s pretty funny.”

“It’s your fault,” Clarisse accuses. 

Beckendorf finishes with Porkpie and Percy leads him back to his stall. “Last I checked it was Connor and Annabeth that did this”—fuck, now he said it—“not me.”

Clarisse rolls her eyes. Percy brings over Bucephalus. 

“You’re an idiot,” Clarisse says.

“Before you came to camp, Annabeth’s best friend was Connor,” Silena said. “I mean, they’re still besties, but you—anyway, they wreaked havoc. Then you came to camp and Annabeth hung out with you a lot, which means that she wasn’t spending all her free time with Connor and the two of them weren’t winding each other up and feeding off of each other’s mad chaos energies all the time. They chilled out.”

Percy frowned. “Okay.”

“But you’ve been away visiting,” Silena pauses, considering her word choice. “Well you’ve been off with Rachel. So, Annabeth has been hanging out with Connor more and they’ve…fallen into old habits.”

“I mean is it really that bad?” Percy says. “They’ve done pranks before. They got me last summer with the itching powder in my shoes.”

“You aren’t listening!” Clarisse says. “It’s worse this summer! Annabeth is pissed that you’re always gone and she’s running back to Connor. It’s not just that they’re scheming—they’re scheming and Annabeth’s feeling vindictive about it.”

“Connor’s clearly thrilled,” Beckendorf mutters. “He can never say ‘no’ to Annabeth, so he’ll indulge her.”

“And Annabeth won’t back down,” Silena says. “I mean…it’s kind of cute.”

Clarisse glares at Silena. Percy tries not to glare at Silena but her defensive expression probably means that he failed at that.

“You’re no help,” Clarisse tells her. “No help at all.”

“If Annabeth wants to pull pranks with Connor,” Percy says, forcing his voice to sound nonchalant. “Then she can. What do I care?”

“You’re gonna care when they come after you,” Clarisse mutters.

“Hm,” Beckendorf grunts. “Wonder if they’ll go to the fireworks together.”

“Why would they go to the fireworks together?” Percy says, much to quickly, his voice cracking embarrassingly on ‘fireworks.’ He coughs.

“Buddy,” Silena sighs in a tone one usually reserves for a puppy that keeps running into a glass door.

Clarisse rolls her eyes. “You’re an idiot. Are you even gonna be here for Fourth of July or are you going back to the city?”

“I’m gonna be here,” Percy says. He turns to Beckendorf. “When you say ‘go together—‘”

“Like a date,” Beckendorf says, never one to sugarcoat anything.

“Why?”

All three of the older teens look at Percy with varying levels of pity and exasperation.

“They used to have a little puppy love crush thing going,” Silena says. 

“I didn’t know that!” 

“I think it faded by the end of your first summer here,” Silena shrugs. A wicked grin splits across her face and Percy can already feel his face burning up. “Why do you care so much, Percy?”

“I don’t.” Percy mutters and ducks behind Bucephalus to hide his face.

“This is pointless,” Clarisse said. “I came here for help—not to gossip about Percy’s love life.”

“Why don’t we go back to my cabin?” Silena suggests, before Percy can think of a smart ass comment to throw at Clarisse. “I’m pretty sure we have something that can fix this.” 

Silena gently taps on the helmet still stuck on Clarisse’s head, eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, okay,” Clarisse says. Silena gives Beckendorf a quick good-bye kiss and then grabs Clarisse’s hand, leading her out of the stables.

“Dude,” Beckendorf says.

“What?”

“Breathe. You’re making the horses anxious. They can sense how jealous you are.”

“I’m not jealous.”

Beckendorf blinks at Percy and then puts his hands up, placating. “Sure. Let’s get these shoes done.

“Yeah,” Percy says, grabbing another shoe and passing it to Beckendorf.

Hey, boss.

Percy looks up to Blackjack.

You want me to kick Connor in the face?

Percy smothers a laugh. “No, that’s probably not a good idea.”

“What?” Beckendorf says.

“Just talking to Blackjack.”

Beckendorf grunts, nods, and gets back to work. 

By the time Percy finally leaves the stables that night, he’s in a much better mood. 

Until he gets to his cabin and finds and finds all the bunk beds are gone. So are his clothes. The only thing in his drawer is a set of Little Mermaid PJs. They match the Little Mermaid sleeping bag on the floor that’s way too small for him.

“How?” Percy whispers.

Then the lights out bell rings, warning all campers that the harpies can and will eat any camper caught out of their cabin.

“Shit.”

“We could just move out of all the mattresses?” Connor suggests, appraising Cabin Three. “What’s he gonna do? Sleep on the bed slats?”

“It’s not about what’s easiest. The more difficult the prank, the funnier it is,” Annabeth says, plopping the tool bag she brought on the floor. “Close the curtains.”

Connor doesn’t fully agree with that statement, but he’s not going to argue with her. He closes the window they crawled through so that no one would see them entering the cabin, and then goes around and shuts the curtains. Annabeth locks the door. Connor tries very hard not to think about how they are breaking the “one boy and one girl can’t be alone in a cabin together unless they are siblings” rule. It’s a stupid rule anyway. Heteronormative and archaic, were the terms that Silena had used at the last counselor meeting. 

Connor coughs. They’re here on serious business anyway—no time for shenanigans. 

“Help me with this,” Annabeth says, drawing his attention to where she’s stacking mattresses by the door. 

“These aren’t going to fit out of the window,” Connor points out. 

“That’s ok—new plan: we’re gonna take them out the front door,” Annabeth says.

“Of course you have a contingency plan,” Connor says, grinning. “But please explain how we won’t be caught hauling mattresses out of the front door?”

Annabeth grins at him, grey eyes sparkling mischievously, and Connor’s belly does a little swoop.

No, stop that. She’s likes Percy. 

Connor blinks and concentrates on Annabeth.

“We’re gonna wait ‘til the bonfire tonight. Percy and Beckendorf will be in the stables all day. Silena already told me that she’s bringing them dinner. So, we’ll get all of this dismantled, and then during the campfire, when everyone’s busy and Percy’s still at the stables, we’ll sneak everything into Cabin One.”

Connor had to admit it was a solid plan. “And Zeus won’t be pissed that we’re using his cabin for storage?”

Annabeth shrugs. She fishes two screwdrivers out of the tool bag and passes one to him. They get to work with dismantling the cheap metal bunks. “We’re pulling a prank on Percy and he hates Percy, so he should be okay with helping us fuck with him.”

“Solid logic.” 

“Besides, what’s a little danger to us, right?” Annabeth grins at Connor again and he finds himself grinning back. Connor’s stomach does a little swoop again. They get to work.

“This’ll show him,” Annabeth mutters. Connor frowns.

Ok, listen. Connor likes Percy. Percy is generally a cool guy and fun to hang out with.

But Connor would toss Percy to Kronos himself if the dude kept hurting Annabeth like this. On the one hand, since Percy wasn’t at camp fulltime this summer and was hanging out with Rachel, it meant that Connor got to hang out with Annabeth more. On the other hand, he knew Annabeth was hurt by Percy’s absence. 

Connor didn’t think Percy was trying to hurt Annabeth. He was pretty sure the dude would cut off his own arm before willfully breaking Annabeth’s heart.

But still. 

Connor steals a glance at Annabeth. Her tongue is sticking out in concentration while she dismantles Percy’s bunk, but her brows are creased and she’s frowning. She’s upset. 

Connor sighs. Dammit.

“You know,” Connor says. “We should see if Percy and Travis want to play Smash Bros tomorrow night. It’s been a while since we all played. Maybe Katie and Pollux would come, too.”

“Yeah if Percy’s even gonna be here tomorrow,” Annabeth mutters.

“He told me he was staying through the fifth ‘cause he wanted to be here for the fireworks.” Connor says.

That catches Annabeth’s attention. “Oh. Figured he run away like he has been all summer.”

Connor sighs again. Someone kill him, he’s about to play relationship counselor for the girl he likes and the hot guy she’s crushing on.

“Annabeth, why’d you run away from home?” Connor asks. Annabeth stops what she’s doing and looks at him like he grew a couple extra heads.

“You know why,” Annabeth says. She stares at him, confused. But he waits her out, holding her gaze until she sighs. “My dad never had time for me and my step-mom treated me like a freak. Home didn’t feel like home. I didn’t feel loved or safe, so I ran.”

Connor nods. Annabeth’s frown deepens into scowl.

“Are you saying Percy is running away from camp because he doesn’t feel safe or loved here?” Annabeth says, heat creeping into her voice. “That’s ridiculous. He has plenty of friends here and camp is the last safe place on Earth for us all right now!”

“Well,” Connor says slowly. His ADHD makes him want to blurt out everything he’s thinking, but he’s gotta be careful here, choose his words wisely and all. “It’s less about not feeling safe, I think. More…about pressure.”

“Pressure?”

“You ran away from home because the pressure of being treated poorly and feeling unloved became too much. You had to escape the pressure. Well, maybe Percy’s doing the same thing in a way. Ever since summer session started…things have been different. We’re at war. This is it. Percy’s birthday is at the end of summer and everything is gonna end way or the other.” Connor says. He keeps his voice low and even, like he’s talking to a hurt animal. 

Annabeth isn’t looking at him, eyes now lingering on the minotaur horn mounted on the wall. 

Connor presses on, “And we don’t really know if it matters, anything that we do, because it’s Percy’s choice that’ll save or damn us all, right? That’s what the prophecy says, yeah?”

Annabeth is still quiet. She sits down on the ground and gets to unscrewing the leg from the mattress frame. Connor sits down, too, so they’re on even ground.

“And I mean that’s gotta be a lot of pressure—the fate of the whole world, of everyone you care about, resting on your shoulders like that. Camp is reminder of the war. Being in the city, he can be normal. He can forget about the impending doom and gloom of his birthday and the fact that we all might die terrible deaths.”

“Exactly,” Annabeth says. Her voice is thick and Connor’s heart clenches. She’s looking at the bed post, hiding her face from him. “Exactly. He’s going to—we all might die. And he’d rather spend his summer…not with us.”

The implied “not with me” breaks Connor’s heart. He’s gonna kick Percy’s ass in sword fighting tomorrow or die trying.

“Hey,” Connor says. He reaches out with his leg and nudges her foot with his. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Percy will make the right decision.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Annabeth’s voice is so quiet that Connor has to strain to hear her. “What if…what if he still doesn’t make it?”

Connor frowns. He doesn’t want to make Annabeth a promise that he can’t keep.

“Okay,” Connor says. “Maybe it won’t be all totally okay, but if I survive, you won’t be alone.”

Annabeth looks at him then, her grey eyes piercing right into his heart. “What if you don’t make it?”

Connor doesn’t question that Annabeth isn’t concerned about her own survival. Annabeth is a survivor. That’s what she does. She survives, she stays, and everyone else abandons her. Her dad and step-mom abandoned her emotionally, Thalia scarified herself, Luke turned traitor, Thalia came back and then left again (Connor doesn’t care that Thalia did it to try and delay the end of the world—she still left Annabeth). 

Now Percy is one foot out the door and, maybe, one foot in the grave. 

Connor doesn’t want to leave her, too. 

Connor shrugs. “Call me a coyote, cuz I’m too wily to die.”

Annabeth laughs—a big, unexpected belly laugh. “That’s the dumbest joke I’ve ever heard.”

Connor’s heart soars. “Yeah, but you laughed.”

Annabeth smiles at him, eyes all soft and shiny. She brushes a tear away.

“Thanks, Connor.”

“Anytime, Annababe.” Connor winks. She rolls her eyes at the old nickname.

Connor gets back to work. Annabeth finds a radio under Percy’s bed and turns it on. They spend the rest of the day methodically dismantling all six pairs of bunk beds in the cabin, which takes longer than it should because they keep pausing to dance and sing along to Top 40 hits. 

They follow Annabeth’s plan, sneaking out of the cabin to make it to dinner and then slipping away from the bonfire to go move the bunks and mattresses into Cabin One. They take Percy’s clothes for good measure and when Connor surprises Annabeth with a Little Mermaid PJ set and kid’s sleeping bag, she laughs so hard they’re afraid they might get caught.

They take a couple pictures of themselves with shit-eating grins standing in the middle of an empty Cabin Three. Connor puts the one with him and Annabeth cheek to cheek on his bedpost, so he can always see it.

It’s pretty much one of Connor’s most favorite days that summer.


End file.
